HIPAA Secure Texting

Protecting, Managing & Using PHI is a Global Health Concern

October 13, 2014 | Adam Turinas

With cyber-attacks on the rise patient data security and management continue to escalate to a serious cause for concern. Healthcare executives and technology vendors across the globe are trialing alternative, digital health solutions to better protect and serve patients. Those in the US are becoming increasingly aware that HIPAA compliance is simply the first step of many for health systems that are invested in protecting patients’ rights to privacy and quality care.

In this monthly round-up of social media trends in secure texting, we’ve summarized some of the most notable articles:

Data security is a high priority issue for not just health networks but also the greater public

Healthcare providers transmit more sensitive information electronically than any other industry with the possible exception of banking. With the rapid technological advancement of the industry, providers must heed to the warnings of government agencies or grow increasingly vulnerable to cyber attacks: “The FBI has been concerned about healthcare providers for several months. In April, it warned the industry that its systems were lax compared with other sectors, making it vulnerable to hackers looking to access bank accounts or obtain prescriptions.”

A mobile app with a high user rating means nothing if not downloaded from a HIPAA secure, credible solution provider that can protect your EHR from malware threats. There are an alarmingly high number of fake and malicious healthcare apps for unknowing mobile users to download and try: “If one mobile device is compromised, the EHRs on the server are going to be vulnerable…unlike the old days, what users don’t know is where the software came from and where it is really going.”

When it comes to HIPAA compliance, secure text solutions must secure the images clinicians take and share that contain sensitive patient health information otherwise “In the same way that Jennifer Lawrence’s private photos were leaked on the Internet, images taken by your clinician could be at risk, too.”

The most populous state in Australia’s state managed health system is building an infrastructure for local health districts to exchange and access health information. Similar to the HIE model, ” It’s all about having the patient at the center of care, and making the information available to providers irrespective of where information on the patient was collected… From a local workflow and clinician and radiologist perspective, they will continue to use their local identifiers.” Their vision for the initiative is that it will reduce repeat procedures and encourage multi-disciplinary collaborative care models.

Effective use cases for telemedicine are being developed and recorded across the globe. The most comprehensive study we have seen on the subject to date comes from Germany, where telemedicine was used to enable real time communication between patients and neurologists at hospitals and stroke centers. The results serve as further testament that telemedicine significantly improves both the speed and quality of care.

The European Commission has released a report suggesting that mhealth solutions serve as the key to developing integrated care models that improve access to specialist physicians and improve care quality. They also recognized that there are many obstacles to successful outcomes with mHealth tools: “In practice, [mhealth] needs to be effectively and appropriately integrated into healthcare systems, understood, trusted and accepted by its users and where it achieves better health outcomes and potentially reduces healthcare costs, become a routine part of the system of care.”